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Re: How to improve shale/clay quickly
Watchout using common names..."nightshade" around here means stay away.
Nevere tested what eveerybody said was a poiusonous plant. check your
references, i could be mistakenmaybe some varieties are edible at some
stage, could the birds bee wrong. Hmmmm
william evans
Terry Haven wrote:
>
> Dear fellow permie/Kalenn
> hi there i came across your email re your suggestions re your new
> property.Like you i have the same/near soil type i live in mundijong 45
> klms south of Perth W.A. i live with the hard baked clay base with a deap
> mix of old railway line with the remaining blumetal type stone in a deep
> mix .what i had to do was loosen the clay base to enable low rooting plants
> to grow .ive been on this property for 18 months now and have a fair amount
> of sucsessso far due to starting off with a plan to loosen ,fertilize,add
> humous to a soil that was rock hard to something that would enable me to
> feed my chooks/chickens to enable me to sell chikinsfor a way of earning a
> clean safe healthy living the permaculture way.choks as tracters make an
> ideal way to do al the things i wanted to do to tthe land that i live on.i
> did this for about 12 months and then rested the are a(at moment)and am now
> starting to grow my veges in thge area that was used last year to grow this
> years veges and next year do the same continuing on untill i have three
> areas and then i can give one area off to rest for off year all these are
> have a mixture of trees in to compliment existing native trees i have
> planted tagasties and albizia lopanthato fix nitrigen and supply seeds at 2
> years of growthwhich have a high proteen value to feed my chooks to egg
> laying standard for no cost .i also have a supply of local type decidious
> trees so as to ad fresh mulch every year ie AUTAUM
> which in turn feed my worms that are starting to appear every winter.if
> chooks are not your idea of fun try a mix of legumes seeds to start off
> with .i beleive any vegetation is better then no vegetation any bad plants
> can be destroyed as an when spotted before setting sead.i also suggest
> keeping or sarting night shade plant sometimes called deadly night shade i
> have eaten fruits and no ill effect only the green berries are deadly
> .little birds luv them and chooks,clovers are another good crop.OR even a
> meadow hay crop ,anduse slashing to add mulch to the ground at harvest
> time, self seeding as well.I would alsao strongly suggest you get hold of a
> book written by JEFFREY HODGES called NATURAL
> GARDENING and FARMING in AUSTRALIA it doesnt have the skill of BILL
> MOLLISONS books wich are great but has the philosiphy of BILLS wich really
> opened my eys up this man has an incredible ....sense.... By the way i
> live on six acres here but only able to run chooks on aboy 3 of them due to
> the fact of having a horsey wife lols but have managed to pinch a bit of
> hers to grow some more trees so they can feed our expensive horse as well
> ...we used to have 4 im winning lols.Also my cooks are only surrounded by
> 3ft high wire but locked up in their shed at nightwhen they jump my low
> fences i sell them lols
> another suggestion is to cart grean waste into your place and spread it
> around or piles everywhere let the worms do the workplant where the wastes
> rot use it for chook food as well.
> im writing this you probly hate chooks lols oh well you only asked for
> suggestions id like to know how ya go as well we can all help oneanother on
> here .
> good luck
> Terry Haven
> terrymoe@amitar.com.au
> ----------
> > From: Kalenn Amand <info@dbd.com.au>
> > To: Permaculture WA <perma@eepo.com.au>
> > Subject: How to improve shale/clay quickly
> > Date: Tuesday, 23 June 1998 5:59
> >
> > Hi
> > We've just purchased a 12 acre property in the Gold Coast Hinterland. It
> > has been used as an Ostrich farm for the last 3 or 4 years but we aim to
> > create our own little paradise loosely based on Permaculture principles.
> > The soil is a poor shale/clay and we were wondering if anybody has
> > suggestions for a suitable temporary crop to improve the soil and add
> > organic matter etc.
> >
> > regards
> >
> > Kalenn Amand
> > Digital By Design
> > Australia
> > 61755974051 ph
> > 61755974053 fax